Rubber boot



(No Model.)

W. B. SMITH.

RUBBER BOOT.

No. 447,497. Patented Mar. 3, 1891.

' WWW/ll WW UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

\VILLIAM It. SMITH, OF EXETER, NENV HAMPSHIRE.

RUBBER BOOT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 447,497, dated March 3, 1891.

Application filed November 21, 1890. Serial No. 372,182. (No model.)

To all. whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM B. SMITH, of Exeter, in the county of Rockingham and State of New Hampshire, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Rubber Boots, of which the following isa specification.

This invention relates particularly to the construction of the soles of rubber boots. It is found in practice, especially when the wearers of such boots are working in certain places-such as around and in connection with water-wheels, for example-that the strained position often necessarily assumed by the foot, in connection with the fact that great weight must often be sustained, causes the rubber boot at and next the sole to frequently give way and break, often causing serious injury to the foot of the wearer, owing principally to the fact that the sole, and hence the adjacent portion of the upper, is forced violently out of its original shape. In order to obviate this difficulty by strengthening, adding to the rigidity of, and yet affording considerable spring to the boot, I provide the sole thereof with one or more elastic metallic wires which are molded therein during the manufacture of the boot.

In the accompanying drawings, in which similarletters of reference indicate like parts, Figure l is a sectional View taken on the line a, Fig. 2, and showing the foot portion of the boot with its sole and heel provided with continuous elastic metallic wires within the body of the sole and heel. Fig. 2 is a horizontal section of the same. Fig. 3 is a horizontal section showing a slight modification. Fig. at is a similar section of the sole, showing another modification. Fig. 5 is a cross vertical section on line y, Fig.2.

In Figs. 1, 2, and 5, A represents the sole, B the heel, and O the upper, of a rubber boot. D D are elastic metallic wires, preferably, but not necessarily, round in cross-section, set into and molded in the body of the sole. These wires may be of Varying lengths and may extend for a greater or less distance within the sole, as deemed desirable.

In Figs. 1, 2, and 5 there are two endless wires placed concentrically in the sole, following substan ially the shape of the edge thereof and extending through the heel, at which portion they are corrugated vertically. 111 Fig. 3 these wires D are continuous but. not endless, and extend from the heel through the sole A and back again. In Fig. 4 an endless wire D is doubled upon itself in the sole A as shown.

I am aware that rubber shoe-soles have been constructed with perforated metallic plates interposed between two layers thereof or vulcanized therein, and also that sheets of wire-gauze have been similarly applied to rubber soles. I disclaim entirely such constructions, as it is my des'irein thisinvention to leave the greater part of the rubber sole with its original elasticity and to provide only a small portion, viz: the portion near the edge, with the strengthening-wire. A plate of any kind or size placed within the sole is foreign to my inventiomwhich contemplates a wire or wires only, which are elastic, as above mentioned, and hence afford a spring to the sole which is absent in the case of a plate or sheet of gauze.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

A rubber sole provided internally with the elastic metallic strengthening-wire D, said wire being embedded horizontally in the sole near the edge and conforming substantially to the outline of said edge, whereby strength and rigidity are imparted thereto without destroying its elasticity, substantially as set forth.

WILLIAM B. SMITH.

.Witnesses: HENRY W. WILLIAMs,

J. M. HARTNETT. 

